William Pincus: A Life in Service – Government, Philanthropy and Legal Education

This article memorializes the life and accomplishments of William “Bill” Pincus. The article brings the reader through Mr. Pincus’s career accomplishments, from his humble beginnings in New York City, to his impressive career in civil service, culminating in his work with the Ford Foundation and the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility (CLEPR), where he spearheaded reforms in legal education. Mr. Pincus’s efforts were critical in establishing clinical legal education, drawing from his experiences both in law and government. Much of this article is derived from interviews of Mr. Pincus, conducted by the author, and provides an unprecedented insight into the life of a devoted and influential promoter of clinical legal education

The Social Security Court Proposal: A Critique

Following a brief description of the present system of judicial review of social security decisions, and a look at the proposed Social Security Court alternative, this article examines in some detail the reasons generally suggested as compelling the creation of a specialty court. Next, the article examines the goals and values of judicial review and discusses the Social Security Court concept as a vehicle to achieve these goals and values. Finally, the article suggests several less drastic legislative, administrative and judicial alternatives to a special court

William Pincus: A Life in Service -- Government, Philanthropy & Legal Education

This article memorializes the life and accomplishments of William “Bill” Pincus. The article brings the reader through Mr. Pincus’s career accomplishments, from his humble beginnings in New York City, to his impressive career in civil service, culminating in his work with the Ford Foundation and the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility (CLEPR), where he spearheaded reforms in legal education. Mr. Pincus’s efforts were critical in establishing clinical legal education, drawing from his experiences both in law and government. Much of this article is derived from interviews of Mr. Pincus, conducted by the author, and provides an unprecedented insight into the life of a devoted and influential promoter of clinical legal education

Beyond Curricular Tinkering: Real Reform of Legal Education (Broadly Considered)

We are familiar with the reports documenting the downturn in legal employment of new law graduates and the downturn in recent years both in the number of students sitting for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and the number of students applying to and being admitted to law school. The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) has reported that the overall employment rate for new law school graduates has fallen for five years in a row since 2008. The twenty-four-year high point was 2007, when 91.9% of new graduates had some form of employment nine months after graduation. Of these jobs, 84.6% were Juris Doctor (J.D.)-required or J.D.-preferred. For the class of 2013, the overall rate of employment was 86.5%. Of these jobs, only 75.8% were J.D.-required or J.D.-preferred. The historic high first-year enrollment was in 2010, when 52,488 new law students began their studies. In the last three reporting years, there have been decreases in first-year enrollment, from 48,697 in 2011, to 44,481 in 2012, and 39,675 in 2013. Applicants to American Bar Association (ABA)-accredited law schools have fallen from about 98,300 in 2003 to 68,000 in 2012. ABA-collected data indicates that approximately two-thirds of ABA-approved law schools experienced declines in 2013 first-year enrollment. Eighty-one of these schools reported declines exceeding 10% from 2012, while only twenty-seven schools had increases of 10% or more

Guidelines with Commentary for the Evaluation of Legal Externship Programs

This Article is part of a larger project to create a set of guidelines, with commentary, for the evaluation of clinical legal education programs. The Externship Guidelines ( Guidelines ) are published here with the hope and expectation that the legal education community will read, analyze, and comment on them. As a result of that input, subsequent drafts of the Guidelines should reflect a broad consensus among legal educators with respect to the standards for good legal externship programs and a methodology for evaluating legal externship programs. It also is anticipated that working on guidelines in the discrete area of legal externships will inform and improve the standards and guidelines for the broader project clinical legal education generally. These Guidelines grow out of previous work on guidelines for clinical legal education developed by several other sources. They are the direct descendant of the work of clinical educators between 1995 and 1998 under the auspices of the Clinical Legal Education Association ( CLEA ) and the Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education ( Section ). These Guidelines on externships also have been influenced, to a lesser extent, by the work of two other bodies: the Committee on the Future of the In-House Clinic and the joint AALS-ABA Committee on Guidelines for Clinical Legal Education

Guidelines for the Self Evaluation of Legal Education Clinics and Clinical Programs

This volume is an effort to present a comprehensive set of guidelines for the self-evaluation of legal clinics and programs. The last time that guidelines were developed for legal clinics was in 1980 when a joint AALS and ABA Committee on Guidelines for Clinical Legal Education published its Guidelines for Clinical Legal Education. The present guidelines trace their lineage to the efforts of a group of clinicians working under the auspices of the CLEA-AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Joint Task Force on Clinical Standards, which was formed in 1995 and was active for several years. These guidelines also draw inspiration from the Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid (2006), which is the work of the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants and reference the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s Performance Guidelines for Criminal Defense Representation (2006). The volume first describes the history of this guidelines project. The balance of the volume is comprised of chapters focusing on guidelines for the Organization and Administration of Clinical Legal Education; Live-Client Clinics; Externships; and Simulation Courses. Although presented here in print form, the ultimate goal of the project is to create an editable Wiki document that can be updated and expanded by members of the clinical community to represent current thinking on best practices in experiential education